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United States Patent | 6,149,072 |
Tseng | November 21, 2000 |
An improved system for forming a three-dimensional object by selective deposition of a forming material includes a crucible for holding a reservoir of the forming material, an orifice disposed in the bottom of the crucible through which the forming material flows towards the substrate, and a droplet deposition apparatus for generating a sequence of droplets from said flow of forming material and for selectively depositing the droplets on a substrate exclusively where required to form the three-dimensional object. In a preferred embodiment, the forming material is ejected from the crucible as a variable-diameter circular liquid jet or planar jet, which breaks up into a sequence of variable-diameter droplets. Drops to be discarded are electrically charged and deflected away from the substrate by an electromagnetic deflecting device.
Inventors: | Tseng; Ampere A. (Phoenix, AZ) |
Assignee: | Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) |
Appl. No.: | 064918 |
Filed: | April 23, 1998 |
Current U.S. Class: | 239/87 |
Intern'l Class: | B22F 009/06 |
Field of Search: | 164/457 239/87 |
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